Obesity: It's not Just about your Food Choices

While most of us enjoy fatty foods from time to time, too much of them can increase the risk of obesity and other weight-related health issue. Yet a recent study zeroes in on how genetics play a certain role weight gain. 

To better understand varying risks for obesity and weight-related health issues, researchers Prof. Amit Gefan, Dr. Natan Shaked and Naama Shoham of Tel Aviv University's Department of Biomedical Engineering used technology to analyze the accumulation of fat found in the body at the "cellular level." They found that fat production plays a primary role in certain cellular expansion of the cells.

With these findings, researchers said they hope to better understand the process at the cellular level to potentially create a new platform for therapies and technologies that may actually be able to reverse fat gain.

"Contrary to muscle and bone tissue, which get mechanically weaker with disuse, fat depots in fat cells expanded when they experienced sustained loading by as much as 50 percent," said Gefen, via a press release. "This was a substantial discovery."

In fact, researchers discovered that once lipid droplets accumulated, the structure of the cell's mechanics changed. By using an atomic force microscope and other microscopy technologies, researchers were able to transform fat cells as they expanded to become stiffer, and thus, deformed--pushing to form their own shape and composition.

"When they gain mass and change their composition, expanding cells deform neighboring cells, forcing them to differentiate and expand," said Gefen, via the release. "This proves that you're not just what you eat. You're also what you feel - and what you're feeling is the pressure of increased weight and the sustained loading in the tissues of the buttocks of the couch potato."

"If we understand the etiology of getting fatter, of how cells in fat tissues synthesize nutritional components under a given mechanical loading environment, then we can think about different practical solutions to obesity," Gefen adds. "If you can learn to control the mechanical environment of cells, you can then determine how to modulate the fat cells to produce less fat."

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found here.